Chapter 76 - Blood on the Parapet
The pain was not human.
It was an electric firestorm that tore through Dante’s nervous system, white-hot and blinding, ripping the breath straight out of his lungs. A strangled roar tore from his throat, muffled only by the leather glove he had jammed between his jaws.
Blood, hot and thick, poured down his chest, soaking through his tactical rig.
His left hand worked by pure muscle memory and tactile instinct. His gloved fingers dug into the open incision, parting the muscle fibers, feeling for the distinct, unnatural rigidity of the titanium acoustic capsule nestled against the pulsating wall of the carotid artery.
*04:12... 04:11... 04:10...*
The drone outside the rail barricade fired another volley. High-explosive rounds struck the roof of the tunnel twenty yards away. A massive boulder collapsed with a sickening crash, crushing the rear half of his snowmobile, showering Dante in jagged granite fragments and blinding stone dust.
His fingers brushed something hard. Cold. Cylindrical.
The parasite.
The capsule was anchored to the arterial sheath by four microscopic surgical prongs. Dante took a pair of curved blunt-nosed forceps, slid them beneath the upper retaining bracket, and twisted.
A sharp, nauseating jolt shot through his skull. His vision flashed neon violet. The acoustic receiver shrieked inside his head—a piercing, dog-whistle scream that indicated the fail-safe had detected surgical tampering.
*TAMPER PROTOCOL ENGAGED.*
*DETONATION IN 60 SECONDS.*
“Move!” Dante screamed in his mind.
He clamped the forceps down hard, ignoring the spray of dark arterial blood that hissed against his knuckles, and ripped the device free from the flesh.
He didn't stop to stitch the wound. He slammed a heavy pack of combat-grade hemostatic celox gauze into the gaping hole beneath his collarbone, taped it down with brutal, skin-tearing pressure using industrial duct tape, and hurled the blood-slicked capsule toward the entrance of the tunnel.
Outside, the lead hunter drone lowered its nose, its thermal optics locking onto the sudden heat signature of the bloody capsule flying through the air.
*DETONATION.*
The acoustic micro-charge ruptured with the force of an anti-personnel grenade. The blast caught the drone mid-air, rupturing its fuel cells. A massive fireball erupted in the mouth of the tunnel, triggering a catastrophic chain reaction that sent the entire mountain ceiling crashing down in a roaring avalanche of thousands of tons of ancient granite.
The tunnel behind Dante was sealed forever.
Dante staggered out of the shadows, half-blind from blood loss and shock, coughing up black soot. He wiped the crimson from his eyes, picked up his tactical rifle from the snow, and looked toward the northern horizon.
Before him, glittering beneath the storm clouds like a city of cold stars, lay Zurich.
May you like
He had four minutes left.
***
